Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit and native of Kenova, WV, delivered a compelling keynote address on leadership at the Charleston Area Alliance annual celebration event last evening. His insights on where the economy and technology are headed could be of real interest to West Virginia.

From the Charleston Daily Mail:

“Ten years ago, eight out of 10 people just graduating from college said they wanted to go to work for a large company,” he said. “We just received the results of a study by the Institute for the Future that says 81 percent of people graduating from college don’t want to work for a big company. Their heroes are Larry (Page) and Sergey (Brin), the guys who founded Google.

“I believe we are on the cusp of a small-business boom. There are about 26 million small businesses now. That will go over 50 million in short order.”

Smith said West Virginia businesses can succeed in a high-tech economy by attracting and growing top talent. “People are a company’s greatest asset,” he said. Although some technology companies in other regions pay more, West Virginia firms can compete by offering employees the freedom to create and opportunities to learn from the best, he said.

While we may not realistically have hopes to become a Silicon Valley, the new economy offers an opportunity for West Virginia to attract young entrepreneurs who desire a more entrepreneurial lifestyle. Combine worldclass outdoors, low costs and a growing network of young professionals, and the formula may really help attract back much of the brain drain that occurred in the eighties and nineties.